Eds and Spices
by UnluckyAmulet
Summary: When the Eds befriend new-to-the-neighbourhood misfit Saffron, it triggers off a series of events that will make for an unforgettable summer and possibly a romance that everybody saw coming. Well, almost, anyway. OC fic.
1. A shoe, a bet and a girl

Disclaimer:Do not own the show, blah blah blah, etc.

Blame this on my recent re-addiction to the show. I used to be OBSESSED with Ed, Edd n' Eddy when I was about nine, and it seems to have resurface lately for some reason. Maybe it's a last-ditch attempt to reclaim my childhood before my rapidly-approaching birthday, maybe I just spend too much time on Youtube. Who knows? XD There is some OC romance going on, but nothing absolutely crazy, because they are twelve in this particular story. Rated T for a bit of language, some violence and slight adult humour. I hope you like Saffy, I've worked hard on her! Some side pairings will be happening too. ^-^

Enjoy!

* * *

><p>It was one of those days that's so humid that you could probably fry yourself a nice breakfast on the tarmac, if you were so inclined or just had no access to a kitchen.<p>

Peach Creek was responding to the weather in the typical suburban way- kids were riding on bicycles or scooters, jumping over sprinklers, playing with a rope. The only exceptions to these omnipresent summertime activities (aside from Rolf, who was busy trying to finish his mountain of chores involving various farm animals, as usual) were the boys who were known by their collective term: The Eds. Their destination?

Double D's house.

"Ed!"

An unnecessarily loud voice interrupted the tallest Ed just before he was about to leap, yet again, into the gutter, as he was enjoying the way the water from the sprinkler was running steadily down the road and splashed around his ankles before returning persistently to its destined route, chuckling good-naturedly all the while.

"Quit foolin' around over there!" barked the shortest Ed at his friend, his finger still pressing on the doorbell of the house they were standing before. "Get over here!"

"Sure thing, Eddy!" grinned Ed, running towards his friend.

"Eddy, do you realize how much electricity you are _wasting _by refusing to remove your finger from the doorbell?" demanded a voice belonging to the third Ed as he wrenched open the front door of his house, wearing his trademark sock-hat and a disgruntled look.

"No!" came Eddy's blasé' reply. "Hurry up, will ya? We got kids to scam!"

Double D rolled his eyes, but didn't bother correcting Eddy's deplorable grammar.

"Splashy, splashy splash splash!" giggled Ed, resuming his road-hopping.

"ED!" Eddy yelled, annoyed.

But before the temperamental Ed could rebuke his yellow-skinned friend further, Jonny suddenly came running down the street, waving his arms and shouting. WHAT he was shouting was intelligible, but apparently it was very important, or important enough that he was so distracted that he ended up smacking straight into Ed.

"Hi, Johnny!" the largest Ed grinned, not bothered at all that the smaller boy had just slammed straight into him. Then again, Ed probably only noticed because of how Jonny noisily bounced to the ground afterwards. "You are loud today!"

"No time to stop, Ed! I gotta tell the others!" Jonny said, a trace frantically, and sprinted away again.

"What was _that _all about?" Eddy demanded, looking annoyed.

"Yes, that was rather...peculiar." Double D agreed, crossing the lawn to join his friends. "I wonder what an earth could have startled Johnny so badly?"

"Let's go find out."

* * *

><p>Upon following the general direction Jonny had run off to, they eventually spotted the large-headed boy<p>

"It's the witch-girl!" Jonny was crying out to the others, waving his hands in what seemed to be intended to be dramatic, but really just looked rather ridiculous. "Plank and me were by the creek just now...and we found..._this!"_

And Johnny held up a shoe, that he had been carrying by its somewhat dirty laces. The assembled kids all gasped.

"Another victim!" trembled Jimmy, who was standing beside Sarah. "Oh, the horror! The horror!"

"Just what's all the freaking commotion about?" Eddy complained loudly, in order to announce the arrival of himself, Ed and Double D to the group.

"Who invited the three Dorkateers?" Kevin asked, purely out of habit rather than actual spite, folding his arms over his chest.

"It's awful, guys!" Nazz explained, blissfully oblivious to the way each Ed looked a tad flustered as she addressed them directly. "There's, like, something really weird going on by the Creek."

"W-weird?" Double D managed to say, although his throat felt oddly constricted.

Such as the way around Nazz- other symptoms included profuse sweating, becoming tongue-tied, blushing, light-headedness and even fainting.

"Plank says that he saw weird, flashing lights in the woods yesterday!" Johnny burst out, looking at his 'friend'. "And we saw something running away when we went to get a closer look- it was that girl!"

"Girls are weird." Ed randomly stated.

"It is no girl!" declared Rolf, having apparently either abandoned or finished his chores to join the others. "It is...a phantom!"

Everyone looked confused.

"A ghost?" Double D said, after a pause.

"A ghost!" Jimmy squealed, hiding behind Sarah in terror. "She haunts the Creek at nighttime, desperately seeking revenge upon young, succulent flesh!"

"What a crock." Eddy deadpanned to the other Eds, but the wheels in his mind were spinning rapidly; "A ghost? HA! I ain't afraid of no ghost!" he boasted loudly, puffing out his chest and jabbing it with his thumb.

"Oh yeah?" Kevin sneered, just as Eddy had hoped he would. "Why don't you prove it?"

"What's in it for us?" the shortest Ed replied, quick as a flash.

Kevin gave the Eds a critical look for a moment, then he smirked.

"Fine. If you dorks can wait down by the creek until midnight tonight, I'll give you three jawbreakers."

"Midnight-?" Double D gasped, but he was cut off.

"Each!" Eddy demanded immediately, folding his arms.

"Get lost!" Kevin retorted, which promptly sparked off a haggling match between the two of them, while Double D face palmed at Eddy's recklessness (and his assumption that he and Ed would just simply go along with it) and Ed tried to touch the tip of his nose with his tongue, the entire conversation rendered unimportant to him. Eventually, though, there was a compromise.

"Fine, two each." Kevin conceded, very reluctantly.

"Done!" Eddy smirked, with a snap of his fingers. "C'mon boys-!"

"Hold it!" Kevin said sharply, holding up a hand. "We need proof, too. So we know you dorks didn't wimp out."

"Whaddaya mean, _proof_?" Eddy wanted to know.

"There's _something_ down there that's causing all this trouble, and if you Dorks stay down there as long as midnight, you're bound to see _something. _So you've gotta take a picture of whatever it is."

"What if there is no phantom, or any other fictitious being?" Double D inquired, a slightly sardonic entering his tone, although he still looked anxious. "How are we supposed to prove we've remained in the Creek for the designated time?"

"You'll just have to figure out that out on your own." Replied Kevin, dismissively.

"That's stupid!" Eddy barked, although he seemed to recoil a little bit at the prospect of sitting in the dark for such an extended period of time. "I ain't stayin' down in some stupid Creek just 'cause you guys are all freaking out over nothing!"

It was Kevin's turn to smirk now.

"What's the matter, Dorky? Too afwaid of the scawy monsters?"

Kevin folded his arms triumphantly. The shorter Ed fumed and jabbed his finger at the taller boy with so much force he was inches away from poking Kevin's eye out, not that Eddy would have considered that too much of a travesty.

"Fine! We'll catch your stupid ghost, Shovel Chin!" he barked. "Come on, guys!"

He whipped around and stomped off, followed as always by Ed, who was already excited about the prospect of coming into contact with a real ghost/swamp monster/whatever recent creature had starred in his newest horror movie. Double D, meanwhile, was worrying over breaking his sleeping pattern by spending his night in a dark, possibly haunted creek.

"Kevin, do you actually think they'll do it?" Nazz asked her friend, peering concernedly after the Eds.

"Nope," Kevin mentioned casually, as the others began to wander away. "They're doomed."

* * *

><p>Double D cringed for what felt like the hundredth time as his foot stepped into another particularly wet, squishy patch of grass.<p>

"Eddy, I beg of you, can please return to the Cul-de-sac now?" Double D complained as he trotted after Eddy, who was striding relentlessly forward as if he owned the place. "We're not going to find some B-movie monster down here, and my shoes are soaking wet! I'll track MUD!"

"Put a sock in it, Double D!" Eddy said, irritated. "There's no such thing as ghosts, this'll be a cinch! Remember when we were in that 'haunted' house and it turned out to be some dumb prank from the Kankers?"

"Yes, but this is an entirely different-"

"This reminds me of the story 'Evil Swamp Succubus', where the evil spirit lures its unsuspecting victims into a swamp of sadness where they eventually sink and then they GET THEIR BRAINS SUCKED OUT!"

Edd and Eddy stared at Ed with expressions of confusion and exasperation.

"That's...nice, Ed." Double D said, after a moment, apparently deciding to humor him.

"You read too many comics, Ed." Eddy deadpanned, and then pointed in a random direction. "Look, go check over there, will ya?"

Ed, as usual, was absolutely oblivious to his and his friends' undesirable situation and ran ahead, chuckling good-naturedly to himself as always.

"Freaking idiot." Eddy muttered to himself, trudging after Ed, as he'd only pointed him towards the bushes to shut him up for five minutes. Or longer, depending on whether the tallest Ed could find his way back. Double D, however, heard Eddy's remark.

"Really, Eddy, you shouldn't be so impatient. Ed's only trying to help, in a...strange way."

"Right, like _you_understand what the heck he's saying when he-"Eddy was retorting, when he abruptly slammed straight into Ed.

"OW! Watch it, Lumpy!" the shortest Ed snapped, rubbing the top of his head.

"I saw something, Eddy!" Ed replied, thrusting a finger at a gap between some fairly nondescript bushes up ahead.

All three Eds peered at it for a moment in silence.

"I don't see anything." Eddy announced.

"Nor I." Double D added. "Ed, are you quite certain that you-?"

Suddenly, a rustling noise sounded somewhere behind them. The Eds whipped around, but they saw nothing. An owl hooted somewhere.

"H-heh, I think you're imagining things, Lumpy." Eddy said, with a would-be casual chuckle. He backed away a little, as though he expected something to abruptly land on him and he was trying to discreetly avoid it.

"But I saw, Eddy! It was right over there and it was LOOKING AT ME!" Ed protested, his voice rising into a wail at the last three words.

"I told you, there's no such thing as-!"

But as Eddy backed up further, he ended up staggering into the bush that Ed had been pointing at, and an almighty yowling noise suddenly invaded their ears. A grey _thing_, too fast to be made out clearly, suddenly shot out of the bushes, and although they couldn't clearly see what exactly it was, they did notice it had a pair of great, big, orange eyes.

"IT'S THE MONSTER! RUUUUN!" Ed yelled at the top of his voice, and then took off as though he had a rocked strapped to his back.

"Ed!" Double D cried, one hand clamped over his head as though he was afraid the force of Ed's yell would knock it off. "Wait a second before you-"

"Ed, wait for me!" Eddy shrieked, in hot pursuit. He rounded a corner, trying to make out where Ed had gone-

And then he slammed straight into something. A warm, _moving _thing that was staring straight after him with big, wide eyes. Eddy took in a deep breath, then pointed and let out an almighty scream that went something like;

_"AAAAAAHHHHHHH!"_

Which was met with a;

_"EEEEEEEEEEEK!"_

Eddy stopped screaming abruptly when he realized that his victim was NOT a ghost, a witch or a swamp monster, or anything of the sort. It was just a girl- a rather pissed off looking girl, as she had apparently gotten over her own fear at roughly the same time he did. She got awkwardly to her feet, brushing dust off the knees of her pants.

"Watch where you're going!" Eddy said, crossly, embarrassed at being caught shrieking like a little girl.

"Me?" the girl asked, her voice rising in pitch with indignation. "I'm not the one who came screaming around the freaking corner, Shorty!"

"SHORTY?"

"Eddy?"

By now, Double D had finally caught up with his temperamental friend, although he was currently panting and gasping for air.

"Oh! H-hello...nice to...meet you..." He managed to say, albeit taking enormous gulps of air in between words.

Before the girl or Eddy could respond, suddenly Ed came skidding down the path towards them, having apparently circled around the area, before promptly crashing into Double D's back.

"I FOUND YOU!" Ed cried, not thinking to get up and off poor Double D, who was flapping beneath Ed like a fish being pinned beneath a large, rather stupid dog. "I thought the swamp monster had got to you guys, so I ran as fast as I could so I could pour salt on him and scare him away."

Everybody looked at Ed for a second, and even Double D stopped squirming for a minute to process what he'd said.

The girl frowned. She had on dark blue jeans, pale blue T-shirt that was exposing a chunk of midriff and green sneakers. A pale red belt was looped around her skinny hips. Her hair was in a shade of shocking violet that was in no way natural, and her slightly narrowed eyes were a cyan-blue. In her hair, a oddly cute-looking skull hairclip was visible, perched innocously on the left side of her head.

"I feel like I'm going to regret asking this, but..._what_?" the girl asked, and it became apparent that she had bubblegum in her mouth- whenever she talked, her jaw would make a quick, sideways motion as she chewed.

"Oh! Well, it's all rather silly, really." Double D said. "But first- Ed, would you mind getting off me?"

"Sure thing, Double D!" Ed complied, cheerfully.

He bent down and hoisted the skinny Ed up and started clumsily trying to brush grass off Double D's shirt, though really all he was doing was swatting at it ineffectually.

"Um, yes. Well, as I was saying," Double D said, after backing away from Ed a little bit. "The three of us where down here in order to examine the mysterious phenomenon that have been occurring recently. Unfortunately, owing to Ed's...overactive imagination, we began to think there really _was_a monster down here."

Here, Double D chuckled nervously. The girl quirked an eyebrow.

"Monster?" she repeated in a flat, disbelieving tone, blowing an enormous bubble, which popped messily all over her chin. Unperturbed, she simply pulled it off her face and resumed chewing. "You guys have been watching too many movies or something."

"Well, what were YOU doin' down here anyway?" Eddy demanded.

"I was looking for Electra," the girl said, shrugging.

Eddy blinked.

"Huh?"

"My cat." She explained, looking away slightly. "She keeps coming down here to catch fish."

"You named your cat Electra?" Double D asked, before he could stop himself. "As in, Electra from Greek mythology?"

"Well it wasn't _my _idea to call her that." the girl grumbled. Whoever's idea it was, however, remained unknown as Double D suddenly recalled his manners.

"Oh! You must be new around here. Allow me to introduce myself! I'm Edd-"

"Otherwise known as Double D." the girl said, surprising them. She glanced at Ed, "Then you must be Ed, and _you _must be Eddy."

She threw Eddy a rather scrutinizing look as she said this.

"That's...correct." Double D said, blinking. "But how did you know-?"

"Some kid in a baseball hat mentioned you guys," the girl said, vaguely. "Kyle or something."

"Kevin?" Eddy said, suddenly, his interest piqued. He suddenly got all up in the girl's face. "What'd he say exactly? Huh?"

"Not much. He said that there were three of you and you were all called the Eds. Oh, and also that you were the biggest trio of dorks in all of dorkdom."

Eddy's reaction to this was pretty predictable.

"He WHAT?" he yelled, actually managing to stay suspended in the air for a moment as he leapt up in indignation.

"Hey, _I _didn't say it." she said, raising her eyebrows slightly, but her tone of voice implied that she wasn't disagreeing.

"That JERK!" Eddy fumed savagely, mostly to himself. "Making us come all out here when he _knew_there was no monster and sayin' that about us! Wait 'till I get my hands on that..."

Double D strategically reclaimed his position in front of the shorter Ed before the topic of Kevin had arose.

"By the way, I don't believe you mentioned your name?" he prompted.

The girl paused. Then, she smiled, for the first time since they'd been speaking.

"I'm Saffy."

* * *

><p>"Goodness, I certainly am glad to be out of the creek. It seems so much more imposing at night..." Double D sighed with relief.<p>

After realizing that Kevin had completely set up the Eds, they had made the unanimous decision to get out of the Creek, although Ed seemed a little disappointed that there had in fact been nothing paranormal down there at all.

"Wait until I get my hands on Kevin." Eddy growled, repeating his previous threat. "He completely played us! Probably paid Jonny to go running down the street in the first place, then he got all the others to go along with it...bet he put that stupid shoe there himself..."

"Does he always take everything so personally?" Saffy asked Double D, snapping her gum again. The skinny Ed flinched slightly at the noise.

"Unfortunately." Double D replied, deadpan.

The Cul-de-sac loomed into view, after what felt like a long time walking back from the creek. It still wasn't quite dark yet- the Eds found themselves grateful for the long days of summer. It had seemed much darker at the creek, with all the trees and bushes casting shadows about the place.

"Well, at least we won't get busted by our folks for staying out so late." Eddy said. "Bet Kevin didn't think we'd figure out his trick so soon."

Double D decided not to bother pointing out that it was more pure chance that they had happened to run into Saffy at the right time- he didn't think Eddy was in the mood to hear logic. But then he remembered something.

"By the way, Saffy, how did Kevin know that you would be down by the creek tonight?"

"He guessed." Saffy replied, shrugging yet again. "He saw me there the other night, although he didn't mention that the other kids thought I was a _ghost._"

"Or a swamp monster." Ed contributed, unhelpfully. He had a twig sticking out from the back of his jacket.

"Why are you hanging around the creek, anyway?" Eddy wanted to know, breaking out of his Kevin-related mood, at least for the moment.

"I ran away." Saffy said, a hint of smugness in her tone, as though this was some kind of rite of passage the Eds had yet to acquire.

"R-ran away?" Double D repeated, looking shocked.

Eddy supposed that the concept of doing something so disobedient and reckless had temporarily short-circuited Double D's brain. He looked at Saffy with a frown.

"Ran away? So where've you been living, then?"

"Around," Saffy said, evasively, not quite meeting his eyes as she said it.

"B-but that's-! Your parents! They must be worried sick!" Double D said, empathetically. "How can you be so cavalier about it?"

"Hey, it's fine. I can handle it." Saffy said, with an odd little smile. "There's plenty of places for a kid to crash in neighborhoods like these. You've just got to know where to look."

"Wait..." Eddy said, the cogs in his head slowly turning. "Don't tell me one of these places is-"

"Hey, look at that, looks like somebody waited up for you guys." Saffy said, backing away suddenly as a light snapped on- Ed's house. "I'll see you guys around."

And before any of them could prod her for more answers, Saffy turned and hurried away, just as a bright yellow rectangle of light spilled over the Eds, and a figure stood in the doorway. The Eds all cowered as one when they saw who it was.

"ED!" Sarah shrieked, in a voice that could shatter windows. "You get in this house RIGHT NOW! YOU ARE IN BIG TROUBLE, MISTER!"

"Saraaaah! I can explaaaain!" Ed wailed, scrambling to get away, but Sarah's arm shot out and her fingers locked around Ed's ear, before dragging him into the depths of the house and slamming the door, leaving Eddy and Edd in the semi-darkness once more.

"Now _that,_" Eddy said. "Is the scariest thing we've seen tonight, no competition."

Double D sighed.

"For once, Eddy." He said. "I wholeheartedly agree with you."

* * *

><p>If you have time, please review! Reviews are sparkly and awesome, unless they are flames, which are not awesome, unless they're really stupid, because then they are funny.<p>

Till next chapter! :D


	2. One of Us

Hi readers!

Ohmygosh, I totally didn't mean to leave this update for so long! I've been really busy this past year, and since I'm in my third year of uni now, things are very busy and stressful. :/ HOWEVER, I have a lot more material to work with and now that this tricky chapter is finally done, I can guarantee the next one will be along much faster. :) (I know this chapter is shortish, but don't worry, it's necessary and my ideas for later ones will make them longer. :D) I'm glad you guys like Saffy so far too.

Enjoy!

* * *

><p>"So you've got a curfew put in? Man, that sucks."<p>

Ed nodded, a pout firmly in place.

"It is just not fair!" he lamented.

Gathering together after the sudden departure of both Ed and Saffy the night before, Eddy was feeling most irritated that Kevin had managed to trick them, yet again, into doing something stupid. Double D had the opinion that really, they should have seen it coming a mile away, but Eddy was less than happy with this and told Double D to shut up. Truthfully, although Ed had had to endure his mother nagging at him for almost half an hour about staying out so late, it was unlikely the curfew would hold out for all that long. Still, with it fresh in his mind, the yellow-skinned boy hadn't thought of that.

Eddy was just waiting for his chance to find Kevin and confront him; his parents had not overreacted quite as much as Ed's, but he'd still begrudgingly suffered through a lecture and he did not appreciate it one little bit. However, he was dismayed to notice that the cul-de-sac was conspicuously empty of not only Kevin but everyone else.

Well, almost everyone...

"Look there!" Double D suddenly noted in surprise.

And up ahead, they saw a familiar violet-haired figure...

"OH BOY, IT'S OUR NEW FRIEND!" Ed shouted, his previous sulk instantly forgotten, and before Edd or Eddy could stop him, he went sprinting off towards the group up ahead.

"Oh, um, hi again-" Saffy began to say as she noticed Ed bounding up to her like a hyperactive dog, but her sentence was cut off when Ed pulled her into a hug, and the skinny girl had no way of bracing herself for Ed's abnormal strength.

"Guh." she coughed as Ed crushed her to his chest- she felt like her ribcage was being squished together. How could somebody be so _strong?_

"Calm down, willya, Lumpy!" Eddy complained as he caught up to the yellow-skinned boy, an irritated expression adorning his face. "Sheesh, we only just met'er yesterday."

"Um, Ed, maybe you should let go..." Double D ventured, hesitantly. Her face was slowly starting to turn an interesting shade of purple...

"Can't...breathe..." Saffy managed to cough out, feeling all the air being squeezed from her lungs as Ed hugged her- her face was squished very uncomfortably against his coat, and she could feel the button pressing against her cheek. The smell was absolutely revolting- was he growing fungus in there or something?! Saffy blinked dazedly as she noted dimly that everything was starting to go black...  
><em><br>__"Ed, put her down this instant!" _

Saffy dimly registered Double D's panicked shriek, before she abruptly slammed into the floor, landing rather painfully on her back.

"Ow." she croaked.

"Sorry about that, oh purple-haired elf!" Ed said, grabbing Saffy's wrist and hauling her to her feet.

"Mmph." Saffy said, dizzily.

"Jeez, Ed, way to almost suffocate her." Eddy deadpanned.

"I am sorry, new friend!" Ed said, patting Saffy on the back. (She flinched a bit.)

"'Saffy' is fine." she told him, edging away from him as if to get out of reach. "Wow, that's um, quite a strong grip you've got, Ed."

"Yeah, yeah, Ed ain't all there." Eddy said, about as tactful as a car-crash, stepping in. "So where'd you run off to last night, anyway?"

"Oh, that..." Saffy said, as though she had been hoping to dodge this question. "Um, just, I'm not really very good at making first impressions, so when that girl appeared I guess I sort've just...panicked."

"A common reaction to Sarah, I'm afraid." sighed Double D.

"Sarah?"

"Ed's sister." Eddy grunted.

"She doesn't look a thing like you," Saffy commented to Ed, not realizing that perhaps this might not be a compliment, considering Sarah was a little more normal-looking than Ed, but he giggled.

"Aw, shucks!" Ed blushed.

"Forget about Sarah!" Eddy blurted impatiently, suddenly remembering why he had rounded up his buddies in the first place. "We've gotta go find that stupid jerk Kevin and make 'im pay for tricking him like that! Lousy creep, he-"

"So like, is Kevin your arch-enemy or something?" Saffy asked, cutting over Eddy's ranting, her eyebrows rising. "Because you seem to talk about him a LOT, if you know what I mean."

"I do not!"

"Mmyeah, you do..."

"I DO NOT!"

"We can stand here and do this all day, but it won't change facts."

"Why you..."

Here, Double D quickly interjected, as Eddy's hands were clenched into fists by his sides and Saffy had her eyebrows arched with irritation.

"Y-yes, well, before this conversation evolves into a repetitive cycle, perhaps it would be prudent to move things onwards?"

At Ed and Eddy's blank expressions, Saffy snickered.

"I think I'm the only one who fully understood that mouthful, but I'm going to have to agree with you."

"Yeah, come on, I just said, we've gotta go and make Shovelchin pay for pranking us last night!" Eddy interrupted loudly, slamming one fist into his palm. "That little sneak! He was just trying to get us all in trouble!"

"Come now, Eddy, surely you're not that paranoid-"

But the shortest Ed was already stomping off in the direction he had last seen Kevin go, muttering savagely under his breath.

Saffy whistled softly and blew a large pink bubble, and Ed chuckled when it burst noisily and deflated messily over her chin. Unperturbed, Saffy merely chewed it and managed to tug it back into her mouth with an impatient flick of her tongue. Ed watched her in fascination.

"Well, I suppose we'd better go after him before something happens..." sighed Edd.

"This ought to be good." Saffy remarked. 

* * *

><p>By the time Double D, Ed and Saffy had caught up with Eddy, who could walk quite fast when he was in a bad mood, they had finally tracked down the young residents of the Cul-de-sac to the park. Sarah and Nazz were perched on the swings, watching Kevin doing tricks on his bike.<p>

"Daredevil Kevin-boy, one of these days that steel whirligig will turn its back upon you!" Rolf chuckled; the lanky boy knew that Kevin's urge to show off had only gotten worse as he aged, and the fact that Nazz was clearly enjoying the show only egged him on.

"He's so reckless." giggled Jimmy, almost dreamily. Sarah shot him a confused look.

"HEY!" a voice interrupted the summertime daze.

A harsh squealing noise grated upon everyone's ears as Kevin abruptly hit the brakes on his bike, casting an annoyed expression in the direction of where the irate bark had issued from. Sighing, he dismounted just as Eddy reached him. The others looked on warily; the two boys were not known for their long fuses.

"What do YOU want?" Kevin said, sounding bored, but his so-called apathy was quickly dropped when Eddy got himself firmly all up in Kevin's face.

"I gotta bone to pick with you, you jerk!" Eddy growled, as his friends rushed into the park, Edd and Ed because they were concerned, Saffy because she didn't want to miss any of the good stuff. "What d'you think you were doing, trickin' us to goin' to the park when you knew there wasn't no ghost!"

"_Any_ghost." Double D mumbled under his breath, and Saffy snorted.

"And who's the dumbass who actually fell for it?" Kevin shot back, unrepentant. Eddy spluttered with indignation and he continued on, "Anyway, sheesh, you're in one piece still aren't you? Talk about overreacting, dork!"

"I want my jawbreakers!" Eddy demanded.

"No way!"

"Aw, c'mon, Kev, you did bet on it." Nazz said reasonable, stepping off the swing. "Anyway, the Creek is kinda creepy at night time and-"

Here, Nazz broke off as she suddenly noticed that there was a new girl standing inbetween Ed and Edd.

"Oh, hi!" Nazz chirped, gliding past Kevin and Eddy to greet Saffy, a smile lighting up her pretty face. "I totally didn't see you there! I'm Nazz, what's your name?"

"Oh," Saffy said, abruptly stopping her incessant gum-chewing. She actually sounded kind of shy as she said, "Um, I'm Saffy. Well, actually, it's Saffron but nobody calls me that because it sounds kind of weird...not that Saffy's not a little weird, but it's shorter. Shorter then Saffron is, anyway."

Eddy stared at her, eyebrows rising at her sudden attack of babbling. Nazz, though, seemed unperturbed.

"Awesome!" she said. "I love your hair, how'd you get it like that?"

"I dyed it?" Saffy said, thinking this was obvious, but since the tall kid by the swings had blue hair, maybe it wasn't so crazy to ask.

"Hey, I think I've seen you before!" Sarah suddenly said, hopping off her own swing with Jimmy following her. By now, Saffy had inadvertently attracted a small crowd. "Weren't you there last night when these guys came back from the Creek?"

"Oh, yeah. That was me." Saffy said, nodding.

"Wait, you were in the Creek last night, too?" Nazz asked, and then looked at Kevin with a frown. "Hey, Kev, did you tell Saffy to go there last night? That's mean! She only just got here, what if she'd gotten lost or something?"

"Hey, I didn't know she was gonna be there!" Kevin defended, immediately. He glanced at Saffy. "We met yesterday and she said she was lookin' for her cat. You've just moved here, right?"

"Something like that..." Saffy agreed with him, to the confusion of the Eds.

"I don't believe you!" Eddy interrupted, not wanting to potentially lose out on getting himself some free jawbreakers just because there was a new girl. "And even if you _didn't_tell her to go there, you were still tryin' to get us in trouble! Ed has a curfew now, thanks to you!"

"It ain't my fault you'd do anything for a lousy jawbreaker." Kevin asserted stubbornly. "And I'm telling you I didn't tell her to go down there! Ask her."

Everyone looked over at Saffy, who fidgeted under the scrutiny.

"Well?" Eddy demanded.

"Eddy!" Double D admonished him. "Honestly, you don't need to be so aggressive about it."

"I was looking for Electra, I told you that!" Saffy said, obviously feeling ganged-up on. "Jeez, I wasn't lying. Why would I?"

"See?" Kevin said, smugly.

"You still tricked us!" Eddy said, loudly. "That's six jawbreakers, Shovel-chin!"

"That wasn't part of the deal, Dorky!" Kevin snapped. "You didn't stay there the time-limit, so you get nothing!"

"That's so bogus! You meet Saffy and don't tell anybody about it, and then you plant a shoe and convince everyone else there is a ghost and THEN you trick us into going!"

"Huh? I didn't plant a shoe." Kevin frowned.

"Yeah, right!"

"I like shoes!" Ed giggled. Nobody paid him any notice.

"Dude, where would I get a shoe that small from?" Kevin said, all annoyed. "And Johnny's the one who found it, jeez."

"Rolf is confused. I was assured the Creek was haunted by vengeful spirit!" Rolf butted in.

"There is no ghost, Rolf." Kevin said, sounding tired. "I guess Johnny must've seen Saffy over here and gotten all shaken up over nothin'."

Rolf stared curiously at Saffy, who seemed eager to change the subject.

"But I didn't lost a shoe..." Saffy frowned. "I'm _wearing_them. See?"

Everyone glanced at Saffy's sneakered feet as if to make extra sure, and of course, her green sneakers were irrefutably there. She even wiggled her feet n them as if to verify it.

"Huh...who's is it, then?" Sarah frowned.

Nobody offered up any suggestions. Double D "hmmed" to himself in a vague manner, but aside from that, it was quiet. Then Eddy spoke up.

"Well, anyway, we still went down to the Creek as promised and when we found her-" he jabbed a finger at Saffy, almost poking her in the chest. "-we left! So we did do the bet and you've still gotta fork over. Ha!"

Kevin folded his arms and smirked.

"Fine. One each."

"_What?!" _Eddy cried out, obviously outraged. "No way!"

"Hey, you still didn't stay as long as I said, new girl or not." Kevin jeered, although he obviously meant this simply to annoy his sort-of rival, not out of ill will towards Saffy. "One jawbreaker per dork. Take it or leave it."

Eddy's face dropped into a scowl.

"Fine." he bit out, folding his arms over his chest and looking surly.

"This is boring!" Sarah declared. "C'mon, Jimmy, let's go do something else!"

Without much further ado, the redhead turned and strode off towards the gap chain link fence that functioned as an entrance, and Jimmy trotted at her heels. Kevin hopped onto his bike and said, "Comin', Nazz?" who giggled and climbed aboard.

Departing the part with Rolf following them, chuckling a little, this left the Eds alone.

"C'mon, you guys." Eddy said, evidently still miffed, and strode between his friends, leaving through the second gap in the surrounding fence, and the others followed without complaint.

That seemed to be the end of the matter, until a voice broke out, startling the Eds out of their downbeat silence.

"Hey, wait up!" Saffy called, trotting after the Eds.

They turned, looking confused.

"Huh?" asked Eddy, eloquently.

"What do you mean, 'huh'?" Saffy replied impatiently, as she caught up to them. "I should have thought it was pretty easy to work out."

"You are such a wiseass!" Eddy spluttered in annoyance. "I _meant_, why are you followin' us?"

"Am I not supposed to?" Saffy asked, dropping her sarcastic tone to be replaced with a look of mild puzzlement.

"Well, it's just..." Double D began, uncertainty in his tone. "Well..."

"We're the Eds."

A small silence fell.

Saffy tilted her head to one side.

"Um. So?"

The Eds all glanced at each other.

Yes, it was true that things had very much changed in these parts since the fateful summer of last year. The cul-de-sac no longer viewed the Eds with a special brand of hatred and disgust, but rather a kind of amused exasperation at their antics. They had spent such a long time being the bottom of the food-chain, however, that they still found themselves as a trio, their elevated social status notwithstanding. And now they were faced with the simple question of why. Why had it always been that way? Why did they still end up gravitating to each other?

But, most crucially, why was this girl so interested? She could be friends with Kevin, Nazz and the others, and her ranking in the cul-de-sac would be secured. But instead, she had sought out the three former misfits. This development had not only been unexpected for the Eds, it was actually a shock.

"It's just...well, normally we're just...it's often the three of us." Double D explained haltingly, but he saw Saffy's expression fall and hastily amended; "B-but that isn't to say we would object you accompanying us, it's just a bit of a surprise and, well-"

"Yeah, who says we want some chick tagging along with us anyway?" Eddy interrupted, brazenly.

Saffy snorted, her hurt expression immediately replaced with scorn.

"Oh, exCUSE me, let me get to the back of the queue of people just dying to be your best friend, Eddy."

"Why you little-!"

"Aw, did I strike a nerve?"

Ed giggled and nudged Double D with his elbow, obviously finding Eddy's irate reply amusing. Double D smiled faintly; it was becoming clear that he and his two similarly-named companions were not the only ones who, despite rather lacking in social graces and skills, it became obvious to him that Saffy wasn't as different from the three of them as he had first believed.

"Well then..." Double D said, interrupting another round of bickering between Eddy and the violet-haired girl. "If that's the case, welcome to the cul-de-sac, Saffy!"

Throwing Eddy a dirty look, Saffy directed her attention to Double D and Ed, and cracked what appeared to be a genuine smile.

"Thanks." she giggled. "I get the feeling this is going to be one interesting neighborhood..."

And she certainly was not wrong about that.

* * *

><p>Yeeee. I'm happy to have finally beaten my writer's block and gotten the "new girl" thing out of the way. Also, tomorrow is my birthday, so if you'd like to tell me what you thought, it'd be a lovely gift! :D<p>

Thank you for checking this out!~ Stay tuned.


	3. Lifeline

Hi everyone!

Just wanted to add a quick message saying THANK YOU to everyone who has so far favourited/reviewed this story! It's always very encouraging to see that an OC is being received well and it looks like that so far, Saffy is. ^-^ This chapter was actually partially written on my new laptop too, and I'm pretty pleased with it myself.

Enjoy!

* * *

><p>"So, what now?"<p>

The question was, unsurprisingly, posed by Saffy as she followed the Eds down the street, blowing another enormous pink bubble as she spoke. "What do you guys, you know, _do _around here?"

The Eds paused to consider how to answer this question, as before now it had never really been posed to them in this way before.

"Well, since you asked..." Eddy began, dramatically. "We scam!"

"Scam?" echoed Saffy, raising an eyebrow. "You mean, like, a con man?"

"Con man is such a harsh word." smirked the shortest Ed.

"It's two, actually." Saffy corrected.

Eddy didn't appear to have heard her, but then again he was well equipped to ignore corrections- Double D corrected him and Ed almost as much as other people said the word "and".

"We prefer to call ourselves entre...entry...Double D, what is it?"

"The word you're looking for is entrepreneurs, Eddy." Double D sighed. "But I feel such a moniker is a little generous when we're rarely-"

"I like Eddy's scams!" Ed contributed cheerfully. "I get to get in the way and make a big mess!"

Saffy snorted disbelievingly, but it didn't seem like they were lying. Double D had this exasperated expression on his face, but she got the distinct impression he was trying not to smile. Eddy looked irritated at being contradicted by his friends and Ed was wearing the same guileless smile he always seemed to be wearing.

While the Eds were telling the truth, in honesty their repeated scams had dropped significantly since last summer. Eddy's insatiable lust for jawbreakers had remained intact, but he was no longer the heartless conman he used to (pretend to) be. He did still come up with scams on occasion, but it seemed to be more of a habit and way of breaking his fits of boredom than anything else. He did still try getting quarters the fast way, but he had stopped selling the other kids things that would fall apart in seconds. Double D liked to think Eddy had discovered a new brand of integrity now that he no longer felt the need to act like his brother. Eddy personally had been pleasantly surprised to see that his fellow cul-de-sac denizens weren't quite as unpleasant as he'd always believed- mostly because of his own actions, but still...

"Yeah, well good news Lumpy! Just so happens I've had an _awesome_ idea for a scam!"

"Here we go..." sighed Double D.

"Shut up, Sockhead." Eddy dismissed his concerns. "Anyway, boys and girl, we need to build a raft!"

"A raft?" Ed echoed.

"Oh, yes, that's brilliant, Eddy. Pray tell, how is that going to be any different from the dozens of other 'scams' we've done involving rafts?"

"There's a track record for them now?" Saffy piped up, amused.

"Unfortunately, yes." Double D said, thinking of the time they had tried to acquire money via Eddy's Creek Cruise scam. (Although later Eddy had argued that things had been going perfectly well until the Kanker sisters had showed up. But of course, that could easily be said for whenever the Kanker's got involved in anything.)

"Enough chit-chat!" interrupted Eddy, not feeling particularly inclined to listen to anymore pessimism. (Or realism, depending on how you looked at it.) "That was then, this is now. So come on! We've gotta get some supplies from the junkyard, first."

"Junkyard?" Saffy echoed, screwing up her nose. "That sounds gross. And unsanitary."

"It ain't gross, it's fine!" Eddy answered, rolling his eyes. "We just need some stuff to make the raft with."

Of course, by "we", he meant that Double D would be handling the technicalities of it like he always did, and Ed would be doing the heavy lifting like _he _always did. Eddy would be supervising them, of course. Many things had changed in the Cul-de-sac, but his role as the leader of the Eds was not one of them. Mostly because it was a routine the three of them were comfortable with and not all that inclined to change, but it was also Ed and Double D's way of humouring Eddy's more abstract whims. (Not that either of them would ever tell him this, of course. Ed probably didn't even know that that's what he was doing anyway.) Saffy, however, being new to the dynamic, had yet to see the Eds actually scamming in action.

"Make a raft, make a raft, make a raft!" Ed giggled as he danced along, much more thrilled than a trip to the junkyard really warranted.

"Something tells me that this is gonna be an _experience._" remarked Saffy in a sardonic tone of voice, as she brought up the rear of the group along with Double D, who was already feeling immensely thankful that he had brought his hand sanitizer with him.

"Come on, guys!" Ed said, scooping up his friends, managing to accommodate a third new person to carry with ease (it wasn't as if Saffy weighed very much, certainly not to a boy who could lift houses if he wanted to).

"Nice on, Monobrow!" Eddy laughed. "To the Junkyard!"

"I guess telling him to let go would be pointless?" Saffy asked Double D, rather unaccustomed to having her personal space so nonchalantly violated, but she could tell that Ed meant no harm and so she decided not to bother complaining.

She was pretty sure he wouldn't hear her anyway. Besides, it was almost fun dashing along at Ed's gallop, even if she was tucked underneath his arm like a parcel.

"Yes, unfortunately." Double D agreed in a muffled voice, as he was squished against Ed's coat. "It would also be equally as pointless to inform Eddy we're unlikely to find material to make a particularly good raft, or that this scam is not going to work."

Saffy snickered slightly and Double D gave a wry smile.

"What're you too talking about over there?" Eddy demanded, peering around Ed, as he was trapped beneath Ed's other arm. Double D chuckled, then said, oozing with innocence;

"Absolutely nothing at all, Eddy."

* * *

><p>Some time and a good deal of snarking and bossing later, the three Eds and their new friend stood by the side of the creek as their "raft" bobbed dubiously in the water. Saffy was staring at it uneasily.<p>

"Eddy, you still haven't told us what exactly it is we'll be doing." Double D reminded Eddy, in the tone of voice a teacher might use to get a student to stop doing something dangerous and stupid.

"Okay, ready for this?" Eddy asked, theatrically. He was met with two exasperated stares, while Ed grinned at the suspense. "We're gonna dive for seashells and clams'n stuff at the bottom of the creek and sell 'em! We'll be rollin' in dough, I tell ya!"

"Seashells? In a creek?" Saffy asked in a confused murmur.

"Oh, dear."

"Ed, get the raft!" Eddy ordered, ignoring the glances Double D and Saffy were giving him that seemed to vaguely equate to _What?_

"Eddy, aside from the fact we are very unlikely to find SEAshells in a Creek of freshwater, what makes you think that anybody would want them even if our search was somehow successful?" Double D wanted to know, as Ed galloped off to fetch the bits and pieces of wood they had managed to scavenge that had been awkwardly taped together to form their flotation device.

"We'll paint 'em up!" Eddy responded, as if such a thing should be obvious. "People love souvenirs!"

While Double D pointed out that people like souvenirs from places they were visiting and not ones from where they lived already, and Eddy retorting that they didn't have to actually _tell_ the other Cul-de-sac denizens where they had gotten their shells from, Saffy was unusually quiet. She was staring at the water with a feeling of foreboding growing at being on the water with such a flimsy piece of material to support them- she managed to get rather nervous on _boats,_never mind this thing! However, the total lack of concern the Eds were showing (even Double D, whom even an outsider like Saffy could see was the only one with any common sense) towards their vessel was at least a bit reassuring, if not convincing enough for her to look forward to actually boarding the raft.

"Let's go, guys! These things ain't gonna collect themselves!" Eddy said, in a strange mixture of enthusiasm and irritation as he easily hopped aboard the raft. Ed followed suit, wearing a huge smile as if he'd just climbed on a ride at a theme park.

"Oh, dear, all this movement is going to make me nauseous..." fretted the hatted Ed as he climbed onto the raft with much less energy than his two pals.

Saffy stood at the bank, biting her lip nervously.

"Are you sure that thing is safe?" she asked, eyeing it warily. "Hey, maybe I should just wait here and, uh-"

"Don't be such a stiff!" exclaimed Eddy, jubilantly. "Double D's made loads of these things before, he knows what he's doin'! Right, Sockhead?"

He slapped Double D on the back as a playful gesture, which resulted in Double D almost toppling over. However, sensing the female's nerves, he attempted a word of encouragement.

"Yes, um, we have built a few rafts before, and none of them have had the misfortune of sinking without...outside interference."

Saffy looked like she wanted to ask what exactly "outside interference" might be, but she decided that she might be better off not knowing. Slowly, she stretched out a leg and quickly scooched onto the raft, quickly making her way to the middle and trying not to notice how the raft bobbed with the smallest wave of water.

"Fine. Let's get this over with." she mumbled into her knees.

Eddy didn't seem to notice her unusual behaviour, and turned to the tallest of his friends with a confident smirk.

"You heard 'er, Ed! Get going!"

"Roger that, Dodger!"

Ed, chuckling to himself as if in on a private joke that nobody else was, knelt down by the water, grabbing a piece of wood on the raft that was sticking out at a rather strange angle, he started paddling, clinging onto the raft with his arms. He didn't seem under any kind of strain while doing this, however, and soon the device made a rather unsteady way into the middle of the creek.

"I bet the shells are right in the middle!" Eddy said, leaning over the side to stare down at the murky depths, although with the sun bouncing off the choppy surface of the water, he couldn't see much. "Right at the bottom!"

Double D only rolled his eyes. He had already tried explaining they were unlikely to find ocean detritus in fresh water, but par the course, his short friend paid him no attention.

"Well, there may be something down there that might be useful..." volunteered the boy, also turning to look at the water.

Saffy remained sitting in the middle of the raft, praying for this ridiculous idea to hurry up and fail already. She was starting to feel sick, but that wasn't the most pressing concern that she had...

"Faster, Ed!" Eddy was saying.

"Eddy, I don't think-"

Saffy yelped slightly as Ed obliged Eddy's request and began kicking much harder, sending them swirling in a wobbly circle. This was not good, not at all...

Apparently, Double D shared her sentiment.

"Ed, please slow down!"

"No slowing down for me, Double D!" Ed grinned, turning to the hatted boy. "For I am Ed!"

But as turned to look at the hatted Ed, he suddenly saw a grey object looming up behind the others, who were busy concentrating on Ed. He had no way of stopping the raft in time as it hit the rock at the edge of the creek with a loud crunch. And all four of them were flung into the water, barely even having the time to scream before toppling into the creek with an almighty splash.

"ED!"

Eddy's furious shout echoed around the creek as soon as his head broke through the surface of the water. Once again, Double D had been right and his scam fell apart before he'd even started it. He swung his head around looking for Ed. (Double D was loudly complaining about his clothes being soaked), but he became distracted by a coughing, gagging sound and a great deal of splashing.

"Huh?"

He turned around to see, to his surprise, Saffy frantically trying desperately to stay afloat, arms almost clawing at the surface of the water and her legs performing wild, ineffective thrashes that were doing nothing except disturbing the weeds at the bottom of the creek. Her hair was sticking up at odd angles, looking even spikier than it usually did and she was gasping and gagging alternatively with each breath.

"Hey, are you-?" Eddy said, mildly alarmed as he swam a little closer, wondering if she was somehow pranking him.

Saffy wasn't listening- she was too busy keeping up her desperate thrashing, even though all it was doing was draining her energy faster, but she had never been very athletic and coupled with a slight phobia of the water was enough to send her mind into a frantic overdrive.

Suddenly, he felt a skinny pair of arms wrap around him as Saffy, perhaps realising in the midst of her panic that she wasn't getting anywhere by thrashing around like she was, had grabbed the nearest thing she could that would support her- Eddy.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Eddy demanded, embarrassed.

Saffy tried to say something, but he couldn't make sense of it, mostly because by this point, hysteria had won over and Saffy's garbled words were drowned out by another round of coughing. Even though it was a warm summer's day, he could clearly feel her shivering. Eddy eventually realised that the sensible thing to do would be to get the both of them to shore, and so he did his best to awkwardly swim to the bank, made difficult with a girl currently latched onto him.

"Quit squeezin' so hard, will you?" Eddy grumbled, but paid no mind when Saffy did no such thing.

Luckily, they weren't that far off from the shore, where Double D was lecturing Ed in a shrill voice.

"And I hope that this experience has taught you to exercise a little caution in the future, Mister! And I- oh, dear!"

Double D's diatribe was cut off when he noticed Eddy and Saffy, the former awkwardly dragging himself and Saffy to shore, hampered both by their dishevelled state and his reluctance to forcefully pull her off of him when she was so agitated.

"Saffy, are you alright?" Double D asked, offering a hand to her.

"I'm fine too, don't mind me." grumbled Eddy, as he grabbed the hem of his T-shirt and began wringing it out.

Saffy didn't take Double D's proffered limb, however, and instead slowly slumped to her knees, her face pointed at the floor. Eddy and Double D glanced at each other and even Ed could sense the abrupt shift in the atmosphere.

"...Saffy, why didn't you tell us you can't swim?" Double D asked, gently.

There was a pause for a moment before she answered, as Saffy took in a couple of steadying breaths.

"I didn't want you to laugh at me..." Saffy mumbled, watching a droplet of water fall from one of her eyelashes, spiky with water, and land on the grass below, catching the sun for the briefest of moments before vanishing.

"Laugh at you?" Eddy echoed, frowning with confusion.

"Saffy, why on earth did you think that we would do that?"

Sighing, the girl looked up slightly. She looked miserable.

"...I've never been all that outdoorsy, and once at school we were learning how to swim...this-this kid pushed me into the deep end and I thought I was going to drown. He thought it was really funny and kept doing impressions of it afterwards, you know." she hesitated. "After that, I just stayed away from the water as much as I could and never brought it up again. Guess I should have done now though. Sorry."

She added this last part to Eddy in particular, although she still wouldn't meet his eyes.

"Yeah, sure, whatever." Eddy said, ungraciously.

"Saffy, I can assure you that in this ragtag group of ours, we have no position to be making fun of anyone." Double D told her, earnestly. "We will certainly keep your secret for you if you so wish."

Here, a note of amused cynicism entered his voice as he glanced at Eddy, who still had a somewhat bewildered look.

"Unless Eddy decides he can exploit you for money."

"Hey, I have standards, you know!" Eddy defended. He looked a little contrite under the dubious glances his friends gave him.

"Ed is sorry!" Ed abruptly said, contritely, pulling the drenched girl into a backbreaking hug.

"Ow- Ed- sweetie, I can't breathe." Saffy gasped, but she appreciated the sentiment all the same, even if Ed did smell like a wet dog.

"Shouldn't we go home and get changed first?" asked Saffy, plaintively.

Double D and Eddy both stared at her. Ed didn't seem to have picked up what was wrong with this sentence.

"Wait, what?"

Saffy sighed and ran her tongue across her teeth for a second as if coming to an internal conclusion.

"Alright, I'm gonna level with you." Saffy blurted out. "I didn't really run away from home."

"You what?!" Eddy shouted.

"I made it up." Admitted the girl, sheepishly.

"You made- what's the big idea?!" Eddy said, looking annoyed now. "Is this another joke from Shovel chin?"

"No, no, nothing like that!" Saffy protested, as Ed stared at her with a pout and Double D looked a bit wounded. She groaned. "I knew it was a dumb thing to say, I just...I don't know, I say stupid things when I get nervous and I wanted..."

"Wanted...?" Double D prompted.

"You guys are obviously really tight and all...and Kevin was telling me about the other kids in the Cul-de-sac and I just thought it'd sound cool. I'm sorry, alright?"

"You...you were trying to impress us?" Double D asked, understanding dawning on him at a much faster pace than the other two puzzled looking Eds.

Saffy screwed up her nose and actually looked a little embarrassed.

"I guess you could put it that way." She mumbled.

"If you ain't a runaway, then what's the deal?" Eddy demanded.

Saffy arched an eyebrow at Eddy's bad grammar, but obviously felt that a proper explanation was in order.

"I just moved in to live with my aunt and uncle." She sighed. "My mom got a job as an air hostess, so she travels a lot and can't leave me on my own all the time. I'd get, like, taken away from her or something."

Although she said this casually, Double D felt a twinge of discomfort at the pit of his stomach. Given that some nights he didn't even see his parents, save for the ubiquitous Post-It notes that littered his home, this was one situation that he could relate to. Ed and Eddy both wore curious expressions as, given their parents were not constantly jet-setting around the country, a mother who was often not even in the same time-zone was a rather unusual concept.

"Which house do you live in, Saffy?" Ed queried.

"The yellow one. You know, with the blue roof?"

"Hey, that sounds like the one I live next to!" Ed grinned.

Eddy rolled his eyes.

"That's cuz it IS, Lumpy. She lives in between us."

Saffy nodded, and then smirked a little.

"You know, I'm honestly kind of surprised you never saw me go home even once, considering we're now neighbors. And really, where did you think I kept getting clean clothes from? And who brings their cat with them when they run away?"

The Eds stared at her.

Saffy tilted her head.

"Too soon?" she asked, with a guilty inflection.

After a moment, something strange happened. Eddy started to laugh. Here they were, hanging out with a fake runaway who had been presumed to be some kind of ghost, dripping wet after crashing and potentially almost drowning in the creek and now this bombshell had been dropped. And yet he couldn't stop laughing, and Ed promptly joined in. Even Double D had problems with suppressing a giggle or two and Saffy broke out into a relieved smile.

"So...now that our, um, 'raft' has pretty much been demolished, I guess the scam isn't going anywhere." She said, deciding not to remind Eddy that it was doomed from the beginning. "Maybe we should do something else? Something...you know, not insane?"

"Oh, oh! I know what we can do guys!" Ed said, suddenly bouncing excitedly from foot to foot.

"This oughta be good." Eddy said snidely, folding his arms.

"I heard Sarah telling Jimmy, and everybody is going camping in the woods tomorrow!" Ed said. "Sarah told me not to listen, but I heard her anyways!"

"What?! Why didn't they invite us?" Eddy demanded, insulted.

"Eddy, you know that I don't like staying in the woods!" Double D complained. "And since we tend to do things as I group, perhaps we weren't invited because they others assumed we wouldn't want to go anyway?"

Eddy lapsed off into a rant, although what he was saying was hard to tell since he was grumbling the entire thing to himself. No doubt he was probably taking their lack of an invitation as a deep, personal insult.

"May I suggest we return to the Cul-de-sac?" Double D sighed, then glanced anxiously down at his soaked attire.

"Fine." Eddy grunted.

The Eds began to set off, Eddy still trying to concoct some kind of scheme, when they noticed that Saffy was still standing uncertainly at the water's edge, chewing her lip as she stared at the wreckage of the raft.

"Hey, Saffy!" Eddy said, impatiently. "Are you coming or what?"

"Oh, yeah!"

Shaking herself out of her daydream and chasing after the Eds for the second time that day, she found that this time around that, despite being drenched, shivering slightly and had been forced to remember a rather unpleasant moment of her childhood, she still smiled to herself as she fell in step alongside her new friends as, together, they headed into the rapidly-approaching sunset.

* * *

><p>I'm actually a little conflicted with this chapter- it's pretty much a rewrite of a scene in an ongoing Ed, Edd n' Eddy RP I'm doing with a friend of mine, and so it feels really weird writing it over again. In the RP, though, my friend also has an OC she uses and it's strange writing the story with just Saffy (even though in this particular scene, my friend's OC hadn't been invented yet.) I'm kind of tempted to add her in later on, but I'm not totally sure whether I should. XD Ah well.<p>

Thank you for stopping by! :3


End file.
